Comparing Two Skeletons

t is scorched, barren earth, devoid of any life as far as the eye can see. In this setting, legions of skeletons advance on the living, who either flee in terror or try in vain to fight back. In the foreground, skeletons haul a wagon full of skulls, in the upper left corner, others ring the bell that signifies the death knell (a bell that signifies death when rung) of the world. A fool plays the flute while a skeleton behind him plays along, a starving dog nibbles at the face of a child a cross in the center of the painting. People are herded into a trap decorated with crosses, while a skeleton on horseback kills people with a scythe. The painting depicts people of different social backgrounds. From peasants and soldiers to nobles as well
as a king and a cardinal being taken by death indiscriminately. A skeleton parodies human happiness by playing a instrument while the wheels of his cart crush a man. A woman has fallen in the path of the death cart, she holds in her hand a spindle and distaff, classical symbols of the fragility of human life. The slender thread is about to be cut by the scissors in her other hand. Just below her a cardinal is helped towards his fate by a skeleton who mockingly wears the red hat, while a dying king's barrel of gold coins is looted by yet another skeleton. In one detail, a dinner has been broken up and They have drawn their swords in order to fight the skeletons dressed in winding sheets; no less hopelessly, the Jester takes refuge beneath the dinner table. The backgammonboard and the playing cards have been scattered, while a skeleton thinly disguised with a mask empties away the wine flasks. Above, a woman is being embraced by a skeleton, in the apperience of love and hate. Of the menu of the interrupted meal, all that can be seen are a few rolls of bread and an appetizer apparently consisting of a pared human skull. As the fighting breaks out, a skeleton in a hooded robe mockingly seems to bring another dish, also consisting of human bones, to the table. The painting shows aspects of everyday life in the mid-sixteenth century. Clothes are clearly depicted, as